Darren Daniel S.

Infante Cognitive Psychology

02-20-22 Prof. Rachelle Chavez

A Double Dutch!

Attention is the concentration of awareness of some phenomenon to the exclusion of

other stimuli (McCallum, Cheyne, 2015). This behavioral and cognitive process is used by us in

order to receive information from our surroundings regardless of distractions. Because it

involves our surroundings, variations of attention are needed for different situations. There are

different types of attention that we use in our daily lives: selective attention, divided attention,

sustained attention, and executive attention.

In the game “A Double Dutch!”, I was told by the instructor that I need to count the

number of jumps the two girls in green jumped the whole sequence of events. And so I did, I

counted all the jumps done and I ignored everything except the girls in the green shirt. I counted

38, which is the correct answer but I never noticed the changes throughout the sequence. Aside

from the number of jumps the two girls in the green shirt made, there are other three changes that

occurred while I am focusing on the jumps. First, there is a giant chicken dancing across the

background. Second, The background color changed from light blue to red. And lastly, the rope

turners swapped midway. Among these changes and happenings, I only managed to notice one,

which is the number of jumps.

The type of attention that I used in playing the game based on the instruction of the

presenter is selective attention. Selective attention is the ability to focus on one message while

ignoring all others (Goldstein, 2019). This means that I chose to ignore all the other information

in the surrounding because I was too focused on counting the number of jumps. I chose to ignore

that other information because I have a goal. And because of that goal in my mind, the counting
I’ve done was a high-load task. That is why even with all those distractions, I managed the get

the right number of jumps because I was too focused on counting which minimizes the

likelihood of me getting distracted.

The “Double Dutch” game teaches about the different types of attention. Selective

attention for ignoring everything except the two girls in the green shirt. Divided attention for

noticing every change in the surroundings. Sustained attention for looking only to the jumping

spot for easy counting. And executive attention is for blocking out everything in order to achieve

your goal. This means that with the right use of attention, the right information, task, and goal

will also follow.

References

McCallum, W. Cheyne (2015, June 9). attention. Encyclopedia Britannica.

https://www.britannica.com/science/attention

Attention as Part of Cognitive Development: Definition & Process. (2013, November 3).

Retrieved from https://study.com/academy/lesson/attention-as-part-of-cognitive-development-

definition-process.html.

Goldstein, E. B. (2019). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research, and everyday

experience (5th Ed.). Cengage Learning, Inc.